


Awfully Late

by electrictrashcan



Category: Polygon/McElroy Vlogs & Podcasts RPF
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, dumbass gays, i'm never not thinking about the pokerap, look its not my fault they're gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 16:35:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18627061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electrictrashcan/pseuds/electrictrashcan
Summary: Pat laughed in the breathy, wheezing way he was prone to doing. “I was just saying, um, I- I was gonna crash here tonight since it’s kind of late to go home?” He ended the sentence in a question, in a way very atypical of Pat.Brian paused. This was just a friend. Just a good friend helping him with project for work. Pat was just asking to stay over because 3am was awfully late to be walking down New York’s streets alone. Of course, Brian was reading into this far too much. He always did.And yet.





	Awfully Late

Brian sat cross-legged in the center of the room, face lit by the laptop open by his feet. The sharp blue light created shadows on his face that made him look more gaunt than usual, his soft eyes half-closed from exhaustion. Papers tossed chaotically around him like some sort of nerdy summoning circle indicated a long night of notetaking and songwriting.

Jonah and Laura had gone to bed hours before, supportive but only so willing to stay up for their roommate. He appreciated their patience with him, knowing it was entirely voluntary that they spend their evenings working with him

The small number in the bottom right of his computer read _3:16_ , not the latest he’s stayed up, but after several days of this routine it was starting to wear him down. He sat on the edge of unconsciousness, breathing lightly and slowly dropping his chin to his chest.

Brian jumped, an electric pang shooting through his body as he remembered the ever-impending deadline. He blinked hard several times to combat his heavy eyelids and raked his fingers through his hair.

“Fuck,” Brian muttered as he straightened his posture and picked up his discarded pen. “C’mon, Brian, just a few more, then you can go to bed.”

Yawning and stretching his arms above his head, Brian picked up his laptop and placed it in his lap, squinting in discomfort at the brightness.

Letting out one more frustrated “Fuck!” he resumed meticulously pulling rhyming names from his master spreadsheet and plugging them into the triplet scheme he had contrived.

A groan from behind him sent another panicked jolt up his back. _Pat!_

He hadn’t realized that his coworker hadn’t gone home yet. For the last few nights, as Brian had slowly became more tired, Pat would leave some time after midnight to walk back to his own apartment. _He must have fallen asleep,_ Brian thought.

His exclamation must have awoken the other man. Standing slowly, Brian peered over the arm of the couch he had been sitting on the floor next to, only to be nose to nose with none other than Patrick Gill.

Yelping, Brain fell backward away from the other man, who observed, stony-faced, with a glint of humor in his eyes. Pat was sitting up, on the couch, far too alert for a man who had just woken up. Quickly righting himself and adjusting his glasses, Brian ran his fingers nervously through his hair again.

“H- Hey!” he stuttered nervously. “I didn’t realize you were awake!”

Pat chuckled and responded coolly: “I’m a light sleeper. Y’know, these old man bones don’t let me sleep too deeply.” He arched his back in a stretch and yawned to wake himself up.

Brian forced his eyes to stay trained on Pat’s face, rather than on the patch of pale skin revealed by his shirt rising just above his waist.

Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, Brian rocked from foot to foot. His crush on his coworker was always present, but it hit in a different way in this late – early? – hour in the morning. Pat looked good in this shirt. Actually, who was he kidding? Pat looked good in everything.

Brian knew he was visibly anxious, and Brian David Gilbert didn’t do visibly anxious. He could always discount it to being groggy, if Pat asked.

“-late to go home,” Pat was saying.

Not realizing the other was speaking to him, Brian continued to focus on forming a confident façade.

“Brian?” Pat gave a small smile as he awaited the other boy’s response.

The blush increasing on his face, Brian ducked his head. “Sorry,” he squeaked, voice raising in pitch with every syllable he uttered. _God, I sound like such a kid._

“Sorry,” he repeated. “I’m getting pretty tired,” he finished weakly. “What did you say?”

Pat laughed in the breathy, wheezing way he was prone to doing. “I was just saying, um, I- I was gonna crash here tonight since it’s kind of late to go home?” He ended the sentence in a question, in a way very atypical of Pat.

Brian paused. This was just a friend. Just a good friend helping him with project for work. Pat was just asking to stay over because 3am was awfully late to be walking down New York’s streets alone. Of course, Brian was reading into this far too much. He always did.

And yet.

Pat had sounded… His baritone voice tended toward monotony, with little emotion to be derived from his tone or facial expressions, but his last query had ended with what sounded like apprehension.

Breaking his own train of thought, Brian bobbed his head in agreement. “Sure!”

It occurred to him, suddenly, that it was a Friday night – a Saturday morning, really. They didn’t have work the next day. It would be fine for Pat to stay. He was tired, surely, and was in no rush to do anything the next morning. This wasn’t unusual at all.

“Um, do you wanna just sleep on the couch? At least take off your shoes!” Brian was babbling. “I can get you something to eat if you’re hungry! Coffee? Well, I guess its kind of late for that but-“

“Brian.” Pat cut him off. “I’m just fine here.” Pat’s eyes crinkled in his version of a smile, as he shifted his weight to drop his feet from splayed out on the couch to sitting upright. He pulled his phone out from his back pocket and looked for just a moment before placing it on the arm of the couch. “Besides, it’s past 3. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get back to sleep. Are you going to keep working? You should really get some sleep.”

Brian shook his head vigorously, long hair flying wildly in a way he might have found comedic under different circumstances. “I don’t think I could,” he muttered. Whether it was his hyperawareness of the very attractive man next to him or the anxiety of his impending deadline, he couldn’t say, but either way, Brian was too wound up to possibly begin thinking about sleep.

“Then do you want to watch Netflix or something?” Pat asked.

Brian’s brain short-circuited. His fucking Gen-Z brain inextricably associated that word with something very, very different than he knows Pat means. It’s fine. He was not going to make this weird. They’re just two friends who couldn’t sleep who were going to watch a shitty anime or something. He’s being dramatic.

“Um, yeah, sure, if you want to! Let me, uh, pull up something!” Brian dove for the PS4 controller and began navigating to Netflix.

“You’re welcome to sit down,” Pat commented, watching Brian awkwardly lingered at the foot of the couch. Tugging at the bottom of his shirt, Brian stayed planted to his spot and kept his gaze locked on the TV screen.

“Bri?”

Brian turned too fast to look at him.

“Are you okay? Are you sure you don’t need to sleep?” Pat asked worriedly.

“Really, I’m fine!” Brian replied hastily, in a strained voice. Brian was not fine. Pat calling him _‘Bri’_ melted his heart. He was… He was just going to have to ignore it and move on. There couldn’t – could there? – be any way Pat returned any of the feelings Brian held for him.

Pat scooted over the tiniest amount and patted the cushion beside him, indicating that Brian should come and sit. Brian, tight with nerves, gingerly folded himself into the corner next to the armrest of the couch, knees by his chin and gripping the controller as if it was a lifeline.

Pat shifted to fill the space he had created when offering Brian a seat.

Brian froze.

They were now hip to hip, and somehow Pat – the sneaky bastard – had gotten an arm stretched out along the back of the couch behind Brian’s neck.

Brian turned slowly to face Pat.

The older man was observing him with an intensity that Brian thought for sure would melt him on the spot.

“Pat?”

The man shook his head and turned to face the television again, never moving his shoulder – dangerously close to Brian’s – or his hand. It was his turn to seem flustered, an emotion that Brian had scarce seen on his stern and impassive face.

Very slowly, as though trying not to startle a cat, Brian lowered the controller to the armrest of the couch.

The Netflix search bar remained blinking on the screen.

Pat looked at Brian quizzically. Brian looked back, emboldened by the other’s shifting confidence, refusing to break his gaze.

“P-“ Brian tried, before clearing his throat. “Pat Gill if I don’t do this now I’m going to regret it and I don’t know if it’s going to ruin our friendship but I really just need you to-“

Pat cupped Brian’s face in one hand, breaking him off. The man remained stony-faced, with a vague concern – or was it trepidation? – behind his eyes.

Brian was frozen, scared to breath, no longer open his mouth to speak again.

“Bri, is it okay if I kiss you?” Pat breathed.

Brian nodded slightly, still in shock.

The moment Pat’s lips touched his, a shot of electricity ran down his spine. Melting from his rigid state, Brian leaned in to reciprocate the kiss, placing a hand on Pat’s chest to brace himself. It remained chaste for a moment until, stuck by boldness, Brian deepened the kiss. Pat’s hand slid to cup the back of Brian’s neck.

Breaking off abruptly, Brian widened his eyes in discomfort. He watched as the realization hit Pat, and the other quickly moved his hand upward to card through Brian’s hair. His other hand, previously on the back of the couch, moved in to embrace the small of Brian’s back.

As the kiss broke off and the two moved back to breathe, Brian looked at Pat in wonder.

Somehow still looking concerned, Pat asked “was that okay?”

“Of course it was fucking okay, Patrick!” Becoming impatient with the other’s hesitation, Brian swung a leg over Pat’s body so he was straddling the other, leaned down, and kissed him firmly.

Sitting back, Brian watched Pat’s face go from worried to joyous, and for the first time that night, Brian saw him properly grin.

“Bri-“

“I _fucking_ knew it, Patrick Gill!” Brian exclaimed, having stayed somber for far too long. “I like, kept second-guessing myself and I didn’t want to make things uncomfortable in case I was reading the room wrong and I’m so-“

Pat placed a single finger on Brian’s lips, quieting him.

“If you don’t go back to kissing me soon I’m going to lose my mind, Brian.”

Brian surged back into the other man, tangling his hands into Pat’s long dark hair in the process. The taste of Pat’s lips on his was euphoric. The very slight scratchiness of his beard made everything all the more perfect, and the feeling of pressing into the other man grounded him in a way he didn’t ever want to step away from.

Pat gently but firmly pushed Brian back by the chest, audibly breathing. “I still have to breathe, Bri! Not everyone has your singer’s lungs!”

Ducking his head, Brian grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I got a little too carried away.”

“You’re all good,” Pat gently assured him, raising up one hand to brush his fingers lightly across Brian’s face.

“God, you’re beautiful. Do you know that?”

Brian blushed, shaking his head slightly. “I’m not really…”

Pat grinned and pushed Brian’s hair out of his eyes.

“I mean it, you know. I’m not just saying it,” Pat whispered.

Brian closed his eyes and leaned into Pat’s hand, feeling more content than he had in a long time.

They stayed there for a moment, two young people finding love between one another. Pat held Brian’s head and searched his eyes, watching them slip to his lips and back to his eyes again.

 “Do you wanna…” Pat gestured vaguely, as if to say _keep going?_

Rolling himself out of his position straddling Pat, Brian pulled his legs in tight to his body and wriggled his way between Pat’s shoulder and arm. Looking up at the other, Brian murmured, “maybe not tonight.”

Pat gave him a small smile and nodded, wrapping his arm around Brian’s shoulders. “That’s alright, Bri. We can do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable.”

Brian craned his neck to kiss Pat’s chin, right on the spot of white.

“Do you know what I like to call that little patch of white hair in your beard?” Brian posed.

Pat hummed questioningly, the rumbling of his voice vibrating Brian’s head just slightly. The younger waited a moment, building suspension.

“It’s the place where an angel kissed you.”

Looking down at Brian, Pat smiled affectionately. “I like it,” he decided.

Brian closed his eyes and curled up a little tighter into Pat’s body.

They sat in comfortable silence, just being present with each other.

Brian finally spoke. “This is good, Patrick Gill.”

Pat looked down at the younger man, drowsily yawning and snuggling into his chest. He kissed the top of Brian’s forehead before leaning his head back to look up at the ceiling.

“It really is,” Pat whispered to himself, before letting sleep take him.

**Author's Note:**

> okay look sometimes these two boys need to kiss sorry i don't make the rules. sometimes u just gotta get it out of ur system u know


End file.
